Way back more than 45 years ago, the name, ' Hamlet ' signify a place where time stood still ... a land full of crabs, iguanas, snakes, mud skippers. Kingfishers and a real sanctuary for birds and small wildlife that lived on it's natural habitat. At times, Austin cars, Mini Manors, excetera, suddenly broke down, so to speak, for the two legged love birds to enjoy the calm and tranquil atmosphere therein.
Then came a man with a vision for the future ... the late Tan Eng Chye, who was the owner of the land, way back in the mid forties, when he started to fill and reclaim the swampy land for a future project. Initially, he engaged a contractor,
Mr. Wahab, from the Semabok sawmill to do the job and he in turn used 4 to 5 bullock carts to carry excavated earth from Ayer Lereh to unload and fill up reclaim areas ... this took some years. It was a tedious and slow process and he cleared as well as built a loop earth road into hearts of the swampy land. Later, he built 5 wooden double storey houses and sold them to the Portugese Eurasion families namely the Rodrigues, the De Silvas, Minjoots and others. Due to health reasons, the late Tan Eng Chye, sold this land to Singaporean and later the late Low Kiok Boo and Yong Seet Fun and others bought over and developed the area under the Sim Nam Housing Development Company Limited. In 1963, the first housing estate named Hilir Garden was established. It cost only Ringgit Malaysia 7,200 per unit for the first few rows, while other phase slightly higher and 450 units were built ... today such houses would be more than 14 times over its original value. Imagine a swampy area once known as ... read more at the Ujong Pasir Housing Estates' Residents' Association Malacca's 45th Anniversay Celebration, 1965 to 2010 souvenir programme.
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